Grateful for new recipe

Blacks beans and brown rice with kale. You can see my “vat” of tahini sauce on the side. Delicious and filling dinner. Flavors are bursting in my mouth with the tahini sauce.

Today I am going to share a recipe with you, which was shared with me by my friend Monica.

Monica had lunch one day recently with a friend who replicated a recipe from Cafe Gratitude.

Cafe Gratitude is a restaurant in Berkeley. (And has a couple of other locations.) All of their food is organic and vegan and they specialize in gourmet raw and cooked cuisines. I have eaten there once years ago. Whatever I had was pretty good. I am wiling to try different things.

As I started to do research on the restaurant and the recipe I am going to share with you I found that this recipe: I am Grateful has more meaning than just a healthy, vegan meal.

According to the website where the menu is listed the I am Grateful bowl is a community supported grain bowl. Shredded kale with local brown rice, black beans and tahini-garlic sauce. They created this bowl to allow for those in financial need to have access to organic vegan food. Payment for this bowl is by donation. No one is turned away. The suggested value is $7. You can feed yourself and someone in need for $14 or more.

Cafe Gratitude doesn’t turn anyone away who orders this bowl no matter how much or how little they can pay. Those who cannot afford to pay the suggested $7 are asked to pay what they can and to practice receiving and being cared for. The cafe also invites those in the community who can afford their own meal to express gratitude by paying more when they can to help contribute to someone else’s meal. It’s a pay it forward kind of idea. I love that!

1/4 cup white miso (I couldn’t find just white miso, but I figured that would be OK)

1 jalapeño pepper

1/4 cup of almond butter or peanut butter (I used peanut butter)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup tahini (which can be found in the ethnic foods aisle at the grocery. I found mine at Safeway with the Jewish foods.)

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Process all the ingredients until smooth. Use as a dressing for the I am Grateful bowl, which has brown rice, kale (cut into pieces like lettuce and keep raw) and black beans. You can also add fresh chopped parsley. (I am not a parsley fan so I didn’t add it.) I used a cup of brown rice, 1/2 cup of black beans, a cup of kale and 3 tablespoons of the sauce. And also squirted fresh lemon juice on top. FYI: The tahini sauce recipe above makes a lot of sauce.

I had it for dinner tonight. And it was delicious. The sauce has so many flavors bursting in my mouth. This is a recipe that makes a good amount to last for several meals, which is exactly what I need to help me out in my busy workweeks.

If you make it let me know if you liked it. If you made any adjustments to it I would love to hear about that as well.